April 6: essayist/journalist Peter Chilson.

Chilson, a Professor of English at Washington State University, spent five years in West Africa , first as a Peace Corps volunteer, then as a freelance reporter, writing mainly for the Associated Press. He is the much-praised winner of the Associated Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction for RIDING THE DEMON (University of Georgia Press). His writings have appeared in the LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH, AUDUBON, WEST AFRICA MAGAZINE, NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, GRAND TOUR, and many other publications. Writer James Galvin has said, "In RIDING THE DEMON, Peter Chilson explores the post-Apocalyptic eternal present of road culture in Niger. Ever attracted by the mystery of the other, Chilson's eye for detail, never willed, always witnessing, is the only compass. All we know is what we cannot find out, about ourselves, and about those others whose lives spin themselves into the darkness of the Demon Road."

Available on campus by Peter Chilson:
Riding the Demon: On the Road in West Africa.

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